When Fighting Is the Only Option: Facing Weapons and Survival Reality
- Liam Musiak
- Jul 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 10
This is not a dramatisation. This is about life-and-death situations, where the wrong decision can cost you everything. Parental discretion is advised for younger students. There’s a common belief repeated in both martial arts and wider self-defence circles: “You can’t defend against a knife,” or “Trying to fight someone with a gun is suicide.”
And I understand why that mindset exists, weapons are terrifying. A knife or firearm changes the entire nature of a confrontation. But here’s the truth we teach at Voracious Karate:
Doing nothing guarantees death.
Doing something might just give you enough of a chance.
We do not teach fantasy. We do not pretend you’ll “disarm and dominate” like in films. We teach mindset, awareness, and contingency, because even a small chance is better than none.
If It’s About Stuff — Let It Go
If an attacker is demanding your belongings — phone, wallet, car keys, watch — and you truly believe that giving them what they want will end the situation, then do it.
We teach our students that possessions mean nothing when your life is on the line. Handing over your valuables is not weakness — it’s strategy.
Your goal is to survive.
Things can be replaced. You can’t.
That logic only applies if you believe that surrendering your stuff will end the threat.
If You Believe They’ll Kill You Anyway, You Must Fight
This is the moment where everything changes.
If something in your gut — your instincts — is screaming that this person intends to kill you no matter what, then you have nothing left to lose.
Whether they’re holding a blade, a firearm, or nothing at all — if you believe that complying will still end in your death, you must act. You must fight, run, strike, scream — whatever it takes to give yourself a fighting chance.
We do not fight because we think we can win easily.
We fight because we know we’ll die if we don’t.
If They’re Taking You Somewhere, You Fight Now
This is the line in the sand.
If someone is trying to:
Force you into a vehicle
Lead you around a corner
Push you into a building
Order you to “get in” or “walk quietly”
Then you are no longer in a robbery — you are in the early stages of a likely abduction.
It’s essential you understand this:
When an attacker wants to take you from a public place to a private one, they are removing witnesses so they can do whatever they want.
And that “whatever” often includes rape, torture, murder, or disposal of your body.
Expanded Section: What “Going Somewhere” Really Means
Let me be brutally clear:
If they wanted your phone, they’d take it and leave.
If they wanted your wallet, they’d grab it and run.
If they want you, and especially if they want to move you, it almost always means they don’t want you seen again.
Statistically, the vast majority of people who are abducted in this way are:
Sexually assaulted
Held captive for extended periods
Or murdered and dumped when the attacker is done
This is not exaggeration. This is what happens when people comply out of fear and hope.
But there’s no safety in compliance once they start moving you.
You must act before you lose visibility, not after. Once you’re in a car boot, a basement, or woods — your chance is nearly zero.
That is the moment you fight. Even if you die trying — you die fighting in public, where someone might help, or cameras might catch it. You do not vanish without resistance.
Firearms, Reading the Situation
When facing a firearm, many people freeze — understandably. But the situation must be read carefully. Here’s a hard truth:
If someone has a gun pointed at you, and they haven’t pulled the trigger yet — that’s a good sign.
Not a safe one — but a revealing one.
If they wanted you dead on sight, they’d have already fired.
If they’re threatening you, ordering you around, or using the gun as control — that’s your window.
The moment you’re ordered to move — into a car, around a corner, into a building — that’s the tipping point.
Because once you’re taken out of public view, your chance of survival drops dramatically.
That’s why we train to act before that moment — to make decisions based on what’s happening, not what we hope will happen.
Knife Attacks – Chaos and Commitment
Knives are terrifying because the attacks are often chaotic, frenzied, and brutally fast. Knife wounds are devastating — even shallow ones. But if someone is threatening you with a blade and hasn’t attacked yet, you still have space to work with.
Again:
If you believe giving them your belongings will end it, do it.
But if you believe they will stab you no matter what — you cannot wait.
Movement, timing, noise, targeting vulnerable areas — even creating one second of hesitation can be enough to escape. That’s the kind of moment we train for at Voracious Karate.
Not perfection. Possibility.
Why We Train Weapon Defence
Many instructors avoid teaching knife and firearm defence because of how dangerous and uncertain it is.
But not teaching it at all leaves your students with nothing.
No mindset.
No reactions.
No instincts.
No chance.
Training nothing and doing nothing guarantees death or injury.
Training for it gives you hope — even though there is still a chance of death.
Even if you die while fighting, that is still better than giving up and dying with your hands by your sides.
At Voracious Karate, we train to give students something — not false confidence, but real preparation for real threats. We use safe, progressive, scenario-based training that focuses on movement, instinct, survival mindset, and fast decision-making.
You may still get hurt.
You may still lose.
But at least you’ll be in the fight.
Final Words
This isn’t about bravado. It’s not about being a hero.
It’s about knowing that if someone tries to take your life — you won’t just give it to them.
You’ll move.
You’ll react.
You’ll give yourself the best chance possible.
Even if it’s only 1% — that 1% might be enough.
At Voracious Karate, we train for that 1%.
Because anything less is a disservice to those who put their trust in us.
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